Monkey robots to explore the Moon soon

29 June Daily Mail

The Moon could soon become a robot colony of mechanical apes exploring the lunar landscape, thanks to a monkey robot designed in Germany. Engineers from the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) and the University of Bremen have developed a space robot designed to walk and climb like an ape over rocky ground, such as the terrain of the Moon.

The iStruct Demonstrator has mechanical arms, legs and a spine that mimic the way primates behave and could replace the wheeled rovers currently used in lunar missions.The engineering team have already built the robo-ape and have now begun testing it in the centre's mock lunar landscape.

According to researchers at the DFKI, a primate's body is better suited to the lunar terrain because its four-legged stance is stable when climbing over obstacles or hills.

The robot can also right itself if it falls over. It can additionally stand on its hind legs and use its arms to pick up samples and move obstacles using its robotic hands.

The iStruct Demonstrator weighs 18kg and measures 66x43x75 cm. It has an articulated spinal column connecting the torso and pelvis to foot and ankle structures.These 'joints' are each fitted with sensors that react and respond to the ground below.

It also has 26 degrees of freedom thanks to various electric motors. The iStruct Demonstrator is similar to the CHIMP robot developed for the DARPA Robotics Challenge.

However, the iStruct's articulated spine, which works as a 6-axes force-torque sensor, is unique to this robot and helps it move on all fours. The sensors in the foot and ankle also allow it to maintain its balance on sloped terrain.

A study from the research centre said: 'The aim of the iStruct project is the development of a robotic system which effectively improves the locomotion and mobility characteristics, if applied to the robotic system.

'The main focus in this project is the development of intelligent structures for application in mobile robots to increase the efficiency of a complex walking machine by the purposeful use of intelligent structures. 'A high number of sensors is needed to allow a precise perception of the environment; hence there will be large data sets which have to be locally pre-processed and evaluated.'In order to meet the high requirements of the intelligent structures, sensors and actuators have to be selected or developed with regard to both their functionality and their integration capability within the intelligent structures.'In 2009, project leader Daniel Kühn worked on a similar robot called the Little Ape capable of simple quadrupedal walking.

His current project is due to be completed by August.